Best of the Caption Contest

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In the five years since The New Yorker started the weekly cartoon-caption contest, readers have submitted something like a million and a half entries to produce two hundred and fifty-seven winners. Quite a bit has been written and said about what it takes to come up with a captivating caption, but there is no formula. Sometimes it’s a matter of dreaming up a clever play on words; sometimes it requires finding an ingenious solution to a bizarre context. Most of the time, it’s neither. In any event, three finalists are selected for each contest, and you the readers determine the winner in an online vote. . . .